Guiding Light Bids Farewell After 72 Years
That’s right. A soap opera was on the air for 72 years! Can you even comprehend this?
Go cry on your outdoor pillows because the final episode aired today, and is being replaced by a game show. Not jsut any game show. Another television classic (not re-runs of course), Let’s Make a Deal!.
“Guiding Light” began on radio in 1937, then moved to TV in 1952. So it was on television alone for 57 years. In recent decades it was set in the midwestern town of Springfield, where it focused on the Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper clans.
Along with veteran cast members, the show also played host to many actors who left to find larger stardom elsewhere. These include Kevin Bacon, JoBeth Williams, James Earl Jones, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow, Hayden Panettiere and Melina Kanakaredes.
The final episode featured the show’s super-couple Reva and Josh (I have never heard of them 
) who began on the show in the early 1980s.
They rendezvoused, according to plan, at the local lighthouse and declared their undying love. Then these soul mates climbed into Josh’s pickup truck.
“You ready?” asked Josh.
“Always,” Reva said.
And they drove away, as the words “The End” flashed on the screen before a final fade-out.
